


Loose Ends

by four_sweatervests



Category: Free!
Genre: M/M, minor reference to past makoto/haru, nagisa/rei if you squint, really minor ones though, references to high☆speed, set not too long after episode 12
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-09
Updated: 2013-11-19
Packaged: 2017-12-31 22:44:34
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 13,382
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1037251
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/four_sweatervests/pseuds/four_sweatervests
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rin's just trying to be a good big brother.  No, really.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Rin’s the first to admit that he isn’t winning any prizes in the big brother category, but all the same, he does love Gou.  She can be overbearing and manipulative and irritating as all hell, but still.  She’s his baby sister.  Which is why, when he arrives at home late one Saturday morning with a sack of dirty laundry in the hopes that his mother will take pity on him and wash it, and he hears a muffled whimpering sound coming from upstairs, he drops everything and bolts to Gou’s room and flings the door open.

Gou practically jumps off her bed and lets out a startled squeak.  “Onii-chan?  You scared me.  What are you doing here?”  There are crumpled tissues all around her and she looks an absolute mess.

“Are you crying?” Rin demands, eyes narrowed angrily.  “Who made you cry?”

“What?”  She shakes her head, wiping her face on her sleeve and plastering on a shaky smile.  “Oh, it’s okay, it’s nothing.  Why are you home?  Is everything okay?  How’s school?”

“Don’t do that,” Rin says, trying to make his voice sound gentler but not really succeeding.  The bed dips as he sits down next to her and tries a pat on her shoulder, but it’s awkward, so he stops.  “Don’t change the subject.  Just tell me what happened.”

Gou looks at him with red-rimmed eyes and sighs, resigned to the fact that he’s not going to let up until she talks to him.  “It really _isn’t_ a big deal, I shouldn’t be making such a fuss, it’s just so embarrassing.”  She looks down at her hands, exhales, then says all at once in a high-pitched voice, “I confessed to Makoto-senpai and he said that _mmhmrm hrmm frmm hrrrrm_!!”  

She’s started crying and squeaking again and is trying to hide her face.  Rin resists the urge to roll his eyes and gently pulls Gou’s hands from her mouth.  “I can’t understand you when--”

He’s interrupted when she buries her face in his chest and sobs even harder than before.  Rin’s not sure what to do.  Hugs and comfort are really not his territory, and he’s suddenly cursing his laziness and wishing he’d just gone to the laundromat instead.

“Okay, so wait, you like Makoto?  Is that right?” he tries.

She nods into him.

“And you told him you like him?”

Another nod.

“And he rejected you?”

Gou takes a long, shuddering breath and sits up again, her face shiny with smeared tears.  “He said that it wouldn’t be right to date ‘Rin-chan’s’ sister, that I’m like a little sister to him too, and then he went on and on about how he’s not good enough for me anyway and how I’m beautiful and smart and driven and he couldn’t handle being my boyfriend because of all the competition he would have!”

Rin scowls.  Saint Makoto, he even finds a way to be perfect and selfless and complimentary when he’s rejecting girls.  Well, he’s right at least, he _isn’t_ good enough for Gou, and it _wouldn’t_ be right for him to date her.  

“...and he smiled, you know the way he does, right Onii-chan, how it lights up his whole face and makes you have to smile too, and he said he hopes my feelings aren’t hurt because I’m such a treasured friend!”

She flings herself dramatically into her pillows.  Rin huffs, because really, he expected much worse for his sister’s first heartbreak.  He shudders to think how it could have been if she had fallen for one of the other guys in her swim club.  At least Makoto was polite about it.  If it had been Haru…  Rin would probably be on his way to break his jaw right now for whatever horrible things Haru no doubt would have said.  And that would be a shame; they were just starting to be friends again.

Rin tries again at the patting, this time on Gou’s back, and it’s a little less awkward.  Not really; it’s still pretty weird.  “At least he wasn’t a jerk about it?” he tries.

“No, that’s even worse!” Gou moans, pushing Rin’s hand away.  “At least if he’d been mean then I could be mad at him and get over it, but no, he had to be all sweet and say those sweet things and.  He would make such a perfect boyfriend.  Ugh!  I just want a boyfriend so bad, I thought Makoto--”

“You want a boyfriend?  Or you want Makoto?”

Gou closes her mouth and her shoulders sink down a little.  “Well both!” she says defensively.

Rin looks at her skeptically, unconvinced.  

“It’s just, all the girls have been teasing me lately about how I spend all my time with the best-looking boys in school and I can’t even land one of them.”  She shrugs.  “And Hana-chan has a boyfriend now, and I just thought.  Well, Makoto-senpai is so nice, there’s no way he’d say no!  But he did and now I’m humiliated!  How can I even show my face at swim club?  They’ll all be talking about it behind my back and, ooh, Nagisa will never let me live it down!”

“Stop already!” Rin barks, making Gou jump.  He sighs and tries again to sound gentle.  “Just.  Stop.  Makoto probably won’t even mention it to the guys.  He won’t want to embarrass you.  And even if he did let it slip, he’s such a martyr, he’d probably end up making it sound like you rejected him.  Which, really, should have been the case anyway.”

She looks at him, surprised.

“Well, come on!” Rin continues.  “You really want to date a guy like that?  Such a pushover and so nice to everyone all the time?  It’s enough to make you sick!  I bet he’d show up hours late to pick you up because he had to… to rescue some kittens, or help an old lady with her groceries or something!  And all day, you’d have to hear about Haru!  I mean, they’re practically married anyway.  He’d come over stinking of mackerel!  I’m telling you, you’d be sick of that big idiot in no time.  You dodged a bullet, really.”

By this time, Gou is full-on grinning, trying not to laugh.  It makes Rin smile too.  “Thanks Onii-chan.”

“Yeah yeah,” he says, and hugs her with one arm.  “Now where’s mom, my laundry’s not going to clean itself.”

Gou pushes him off her bed.

 

 

This is stupid, Rin thinks to himself as he’s about to knock.  What the fuck am I even getting involved for.  I could not care less about this.

It’s that time of day when the sun is about to set and the shadows are long and everything turns orange and pink.  He hopes the Tachibanas don’t sit down to dinner too early; he doesn’t want to interrupt.

He knocks anyway, hoping that Makoto just answers the damn door himself.  He’s not really sure what he’d say to Mr. or Mrs. Tachibana.  They’d probably hug him and try to feed him snacks and tell him how tall he’s gotten and ask after his mother, and it would make Rin feel pretty shitty for coming here to threaten their son.

Luckily, it is Makoto who answers, looking a little caught off guard but cheerful as ever.  “Rin!  This is a nice surprise!  Everything all right?  How are you?”

Rin holds up a hand to try and stop any more pleasantries from spilling out of Makoto’s mouth. “I didn’t come for chit-chat, okay?  I just need to make sure you’re not going to go around telling people about how you shot down my sister, all right?  It’s no one’s business, and if you embarrass her, I’ll have to--”

 “Whoa, Rin,” Makoto says innocently, eyes wide.  He steps out onto the front step and closes the door behind him.  “No, I would never.  Look, of course I won’t tell anyone.  I didn’t even tell Haru.  I would never want to embarrass Gou or make her feel bad, she’s like a little sister to me!”

Rin nods, keeping his face stony.  “Good.  Fine.”  He turns on his heel to go, but a heavy hand on his shoulder stops him.

“Is… is she okay?” Makoto asks quietly.  “I mean, it was just so out-of-the-blue, and I didn’t know what to say, and I hope I didn’t say the wrong thing.  I don’t want her to hate me after this.”  He pauses, then forces a smile and adds, “I don’t want you to hate me either.”

Rin raises his eyebrows.  “I’d only hate you if you said yes, so it looks like you’re in the clear.”

Makoto’s smile is genuine this time, and he laughs softly, causing his broad shoulders to shake just a bit.  “Come on, Rin, you know I’d never date your sister.”

A scowl replaces the hint of a smile that had been forming on Rin’s face.  “And just what the hell’s _that_ supposed to mean?”

Makoto stops laughing when he sees Rin’s face, and makes a deer-in-headlights sort of expression.  “Well just that--”

“My sister isn’t good enough for you?” Rin asks, edging closer to him.

“What?  No, of course that isn’t--”

Rin’s getting closer still and baring his teeth.  “She’s not pretty enough?  Because I’ll tell you right now, she’s the prettiest girl at that whole goddamn school and if you think you can do better--”  

“Rin!” Makoto yells, putting both hands on Rin’s shoulders.  “Calm down for a minute.  That isn’t what I meant at all.  I just meant, I’d never date your sister, or any girl.”  He pauses, looking at Rin expectantly.  “Because I’m gay?”

Rin’s mouth opens, then closes again, and he blinks several times like he just stepped out into the daylight from a dark movie theater.  He tries to back away, but Makoto’s still holding his shoulders with those giant mitts.  His mouth opens and closes a few more times.

Makoto, the bastard, chuckles.  “I thought you knew?  I mean, I didn’t want to tell Gou, because I’m not really ready for people at school to know, but, well, I thought for sure that you knew!”

Rin’s eyebrows shoot up to his hairline.  “Why?”

“Rin,” Makoto says in the tone of a parent gently scolding his child, “we used to make out _all_  the time when we were kids.  Like almost every day, for months.  On your bed.”

“We were 12!” Rin says, flustered.  “And anyway, that wasn’t.  Th-that didn’t count.”  He can feel his face going red. “It was _practice_.  For girls!”  Why the hell did he come here.  Worst decision he ever made.

Saint Makoto smiles like everything is fucking peachy.  “Yeah, for you, because you were so self-conscious of your teeth and making girls lips bleed or whatever you thought was going to happen.  What do you think I did it for?”

“Uh,” Rin sputters.  “To help out a friend?  To be fucking _nice?”_

“Nobody’s that nice.”

“What is happening right now.   _Who are you?!”_

Makoto’s smile turns apologetic.  “Look, you were really cute and I was pretty sure I liked boys, and then you were so upset when Aki said something about your teeth and then you came to me, remember, and asked if I wanted to practice, so of course I said yes!  And then you kept inviting me over--”

“Please stop.”

“--like pretty much every afternoon--”

“Oh my god.”

“-- it was like living the gay 12-year-old dream!”

“I need to sit down,” Rin says as he’s already sinking down onto the steps, and rakes his hands through his hair.  Makoto finally shuts up and sits next to him.  

“I’m sorry, Rin, I honestly thought you knew,” he says gently.  “So really, Gou’s a great girl, but no, I would never date her, you don’t have to worry.”

Rin’s quiet for a long time, but neither he nor Makoto make any move to get up.  Rin thinks Makoto must be used to hanging out with a friend in silence since Haru’s such a freak.  He wonders what they talk about when it’s just the two of them.  Swimming, probably.  Or mackerel recipes.  He wonders if they’ve ever kissed.  

“So, if I was supposed to have known because of… that stuff when we were kids,” Rin says carefully, “have you been walking around all these years thinking that _I’m_ gay too?”

“No, no way!” Makoto says, a little too enthusiastically.  “I mean, you talked about girls and stuff?  I wondered sometimes, but no, I didn’t assume.”

Rin nods, supposing that’s a fair enough answer.

“Of course,” Makoto continues, shrugging, “I guess since I didn’t assume about you, it figures you wouldn’t have assumed about me either.”

They sit in silence again for a while, mulling things over.

“Well now that I do know, maybe you should date my sister after all,” Rin finally says, folding his hands behind his head.

Makoto turns to him, confused.  “Huh?”

“I wouldn’t have to worry about her big gay boyfriend taking advantage of her.”

They make eye contact for a split second before Rin cracks a grin and Makoto bursts out laughing, and shoves Rin down to the next step.  He wipes the corner of his eye and says, “No way, she’d probably jump me or something and then I’d know how both the Matsuoka siblings kiss, and that’s just too much information for one man.  I’d have to _compare._..”

Rin tries to shove Makoto back, but his giant boulder-body doesn’t budge.  “Shut up,” he says, pinching him on the arm instead.  “Besides, I’m obviously way better at it, it’s not like she’s had hours upon hours of practice... with her gay best friend…”  He trails off, burying his face in his hands in chagrin, but laughing all the same.  

Makoto’s head is thrown back, his whole body shaking with silent laughter.  When he finally catches his breath, he says, “Wait, what if she has?”

Rin looks up, horrified.  “Oh my god.”

Eventually the sun sets, they get up, Makoto invites him to stay for dinner.  Rin says no, he already promised his mother.  But maybe next time.


	2. Chapter 2

It’s not until Friday morning that Rin messages Makoto.  It’s not a particularly important message, just something about being bored in English.  He always finishes English quizzes early, so he’s always bored for the last 20 minutes of class.  Today though, as soon as he hands in his quiz, his mind drifts his odd exchange with Makoto over the weekend.  He’s wanted to contact him several times this week, just to make sure Makoto knows that everything’s still okay between them.  He doesn’t want him thinking that Rin is weirded out (though he still kind of is) or that he thinks any less of him (he really doesn’t.)  Of course, he’d never just come right out and say it like that, that’s something Makoto himself would say, and Rin, unable to think of anything less sappy and ridiculous, just said nothing all week.

Even though it’s just a dumb text, he hopes Makoto recognizes that this is him trying.  It’s not like Australia, when Rin chose to disappear, to ignore the letters and the emails, and forget he ever had friends back home.  Forget about all those afternoons when Makoto would come over after swim practice and their lips would still taste of chlorine, their legs tangled together on Rin’s bed.  It wasn’t as though Rin actually had forgotten when he moved, but he had tried to leave it all behind, confusing-but-not-unpleasant first kisses included.

Rin’s phone vibrates on his leg after a few minutes of staring at the ceiling, and he perks up.

 

_Lucky.  That’s my worst subject._

 

He smiles.  That’s right, Makoto was always kind of shit at English, wasn’t he?  He texts back:

 

_not everyone has my natural ability_

 

_That’s for sure!  Haru says I sound like a wounded goose when I speak English._

 

The teacher looks up when Rin breathes out a laugh, but he doesn’t get caught.  

 

_i bet he’s right_

 

_:(_

 

Rin frowns when he opens the message, then puts his phone back in his pocket and chews on the end of his pencil absently.  The eraser breaks off into his mouth.

“Damn it,” he says under his breath, spitting it out.  The teacher looks up again and eyes him warily.  Rin smiles widely at him, then takes his phone back out and starts typing the second his eyes are downcast.

 

_i could help if you want_

 

He taps his foot waiting for a reply.  It takes less than a minute.

 

_With English?  Really?  Like help me study?_

 

_yeah sure_

 

_Yeah, that would be really great, thanks Rin :)_

 

They agree to meet up at Makoto’s after swim practice, that way Rin can just walk home after.  (Second weekend in a row back home, his mother will be thrilled.)  But even after their plans are set, they keep talking.  Rin sends a picture of his chemistry teacher, whose tie is on backwards and shirt is buttoned crooked.  Makoto sends back a picture of his calligraphy assignment, which basically looks like he spilled a bunch of ink and smeared it around randomly, but somehow has gotten a passing grade and a little gold star sticker at the corner.  Rin asks _“how??”_ and Makoto tells him not to underestimate _“the power a charming smile can have on a teacher.”_  Rin calls him a brat and questions whether or not he actually needs tutoring after all, if he has his charm.

 

_Haha, good point.  I still wanna meet up though :)_

 

Fuck, Rin thinks, his face heating up slightly as he walks back to his room to change for swimming.  

“Matsuoka-senpai!!” Nitori greets him the second he opens the door.  “Oh!  You look very happy today Senpai.”

Rin pushes his way past his little hummingbird of a roommate.  

“Something good must have happened to you today to make you smile like that!” Nitori continues.  “What was it Senpai?”

Rin growls as he removes his uniform jacket, wishing Nitori would quit hovering and just go on ahead to practice without him.  “I’m not happy.  I don’t smile.”

Nitori just laughs, a little too close behind Rin.  “Oh okay!”

 

After a fairly uneventful practice (he was too distracted to put in his usual effort) and bus ride over, Rin finds himself at Makoto’s front door once again.  This time, it’s the youngest Tachibanas who answer.

“Uh, hello,” Rin says to Ren and Ran, Makoto’s obnoxious little siblings, who are staring up at him silently, blocking the doorway.  He has never been able to remember which one is which.

“Oh it’s this one,” the girl twin says to the boy.  “Wonder what _he’s_ doing here.”

“He got taller,” the boy notes.

“Tch, he’s not so tall,” the girl replies.  “Onii-chan is much taller.  And that hair is much too long for a boy.”

“His teeth though,” the boy exclaims, and they both tilt their heads to the side.

“Ooh, they’re so weird, I bet he can break a pencil in one chomp!”

Rin’s glare grows more and more menacing the more the little brats discuss his appearance, until Makoto finally appears behind them.

The brats plaster on innocent smiles.  “Onii-chan,” they say in unison, “Matsuoka-san is here!”

Makoto ruffles their hair and they run off, presumably to their room to worship demons or something, and Rin forgets about them quickly.

“Hey,” Makoto says with a huge smile.  “Come on in.”

 

Turns out Makoto does kind of sound like an injured goose when he speaks English.  Rin tries not to laugh, but Makoto mentions it first and Rin can’t help it.  They don’t get a lot of actual work done, but Rin does manage to convince him not to try so hard with his pronunciation, and if he just slows it down, the sounds will make more sense.  Rin catches himself more than once staring at how Makoto’s mouth moves as he tries to properly conjugate verbs, and tells himself it’s all in effort of being a thorough tutor.  By the time Makoto finally starts to get the hang of it, Mrs. Tachibana lets them know that dinner is ready and she hopes Rin will stay, she made more than enough.

He does, and Makoto’s parents comment on how tall he’s gotten and they ask after his mother, and he does his best to ignore the strange looks he keeps getting from the monster-twins.  Makoto does most of the talking for Rin, which is fine by him.  They tell him they’re glad to see he and Makoto being friendly again, and Rin swears he sees Mr. Tachibana wink at his wife.  Makoto’s cheeks turn a bit pink at this, and he glances sideways at Rin, who just casually says that he is too.

After dinner, Rin expects to be shown to the door, but instead Makoto beckons him back to his room.  “I’m just gonna wash up,” he says, and heads to the bathroom instead.

He takes a piss and washes his hands with the fancy little guest soap that smells like pear and ginseng, and spends what is probably an obscene amount of time primping in the mirror, making sure every hair is properly tousled, wondering all the while if he should just leave.  He wonders this all the way upstairs to Makoto’s bedroom, but forgets as soon as he opens the door and sees Makoto sitting on his bed with a video game controller in his hands and his glasses on, staring at his tv screen with determination, looking, in Rin’s opinion, far more adorable than should be allowed.

Rin grabs a controller and plants himself next to Makoto.  He doesn’t recognize the game, some generic first person shooter that he’ll surely be crap at, but he joins in anyway.  A computerized voice lets them know that _“Player 2 has joined the game.”_

They play for what feels like a long time.  Rin is getting completely massacred, and Makoto’s trying to give him tips that fly right over his head.

“There’s a better weapons cache inside the shed south of the warehouse, you’ll never kill anything with that nine-milli you’ve got.”

“Are you even looking at your heat sensor?  There are hostiles all around you!”

“Hide and reload!  Hit B, reload is B!”

_“Player 2 has left the game.”_

“Huh?” Makoto pauses the game and turns to Rin, who’s tossing his controller to the floor.  “Why did--”

Rin cuts him off by leaning over, placing his hand on the back of Makoto’s neck, and before he has a chance to chicken out, he wets his lips and presses them to Makoto’s.  Makoto makes a surprised little gasp, muffled by Rin’s mouth on his, but quickly catches on and kisses him back, letting his tongue slip past Rin’s lips.  Rin moves his hand upward, curling his fingers into Makoto’s hair, and Makoto turns more fully toward him, his hands finding their way to Rin’s hips.

Feeling emboldened by the positive reception, Rin scoots closer, pressing his body into Makoto’s, his own pulse deafening in his ears, Makoto’s tongue sliding against his.

“ _Game over,”_ the computer voice tells them dramatically, and they break apart with a quiet smacking sound.

They both look at the tv, then at each other, wearing matching, slightly dazed expressions.  Rin smiles sheepishly and Makoto chuckles softly, then turns the tv off and tosses the remote aside.

“So,” Makoto says, clearing his throat, “is this… practice?”

Rin shakes his head, hastily climbs onto Makoto’s lap, knees bracketing his hips, and kisses him again, slower this time, his thumb gently stroking along Makoto’s jaw.  “This is because I want to, because I haven’t stopped thinking about you all day,” he tries to whisper, but it comes out more like a low growl.  

Makoto sighs against his lips, and Rin feels him smile.  “You kiss the same as you used to,” he says, his hands roaming up Rin’s thighs and up underneath the hem of his shirt.  Rin shivers at the touch.

“You don’t,” he says, and as if to prove him right, Makoto holds Rin a little tighter and pushes his tongue further into his mouth.  He’s more forceful, more sure of himself.  Rin wasn’t sure what he was expecting after all these years, but he’s not about to complain.

He feels Makoto’s hands sliding further up his torso under his shirt, and his legs give a little involuntary squeeze.

“Is this okay?” Makoto whispers, pushing Rin’s shirt up toward his armpits.  Rin nods and leans back a little to help him pull the shirt off over his head.  He quickly follows suit with Makoto’s shirt, though it gets stuck on his glasses and Makoto tries to help separate the two, folding his glasses and setting them on the bedside table.  Rin grabs the shirt but instead of tossing it to the floor, he aims it at the bright reading lamp over on the desk, effectively dimming the room.

Makoto raises his eyebrows.  “What?” Rin says defensively.  “Shut up, it’s like, romantic mood-lighting now.”

They both start laughing, not quite stopping when they start kissing again, until Makoto flips him forcefully onto his back on the bed, stealing his breath completely.  Makoto’s heavy presence is on top of him, sucking Rin’s bottom lip into his mouth, Rin’s hips moving slowly against Makoto’s of their own accord.

He can’t help wondering when exactly Makoto became such an expert at making out, because he’s so incredibly different than the shy, sweet kid he used to (mostly) innocently practice with after school.  That mild curiosity actually brings up a thought that’s been niggling at the back of his mind all week, but he really doesn’t want to bring it up now.

“Have you... ever done this with Haru?” Rin blurts out, right as Makoto’s going for the button on his pants.

Makoto’s hand freezes, and he pulls away slowly, sitting back on his knees.  “Uh.”

Rin props himself up on his elbows and bites his lip, immediately regretting saying anything, it’s not like it matters, it won’t change anything--

“Yeah,” Makoto says, clearing his throat awkwardly.

Rin exhales and his chest feels tight and his ears are hot, and suddenly he’s very aware of how exposed he is.  “Oh.  Okay--”

“Hey,” Makoto says gently.  He pushes a strand of hair out of Rin’s eyes.  “I mean, yeah, sort of, but it’s not like we ever… went all the way or anything?”  His eyes go wide.  “Not that we are, like right now, or, I mean.  I don’t wanna presume…”

Rin’s so mad at himself for not keeping his mouth shut, and he’s mad at Haru for ever kissing Makoto or touching him when it should have been Rin all the time, and how far did they go, and how many times, and when… he doesn’t even realize he’s practically chewing a hole in his lip until Makoto runs his thumb along it and sighs.

“It was kind of a long time ago now, and, regardless of whatever’s happening with you and me, Haru and I aren’t going to happen.”

Makoto’s face is so earnest and sweet and fucking hopeful, Rin’s chest starts to feel a little less tight and he pulls Makoto back down to kiss him.  It’s not really enough information, but it’s okay for now, Rid decides he can live with it.  “Sorry,” he says quietly, when Makoto has settled his weight back onto him.  “I just--”

“It’s okay,” Makoto breathes.  “I get it.  It’s Haru.”  He says it like that completely explains Rin’s sudden jealousy and freezing up and ruining the moment.  Weirdly, it does though.  “Just.  You don’t have to compete with him over everything, you know.  Definitely not over me.”

Makoto smiles.  It makes Rin feel better.  

At some point, they both manage to shimmy out of their pants, Makoto’s got one muscular thigh between Rin’s, and his teeth gently attached to a particularly sensitive spot on Rin’s neck.  Breathy little noises fill the room as they move against each other, and Rin doesn’t even realize they’re coming from him until Makoto whispers, “Shh, my parents,” into his neck.  

It’s really not fair though, because the next second after Makoto shushes him, he reaches down and rubs Rin’s cock, which Rin guesses has to be harder than it’s ever been in his life, through his briefs.

A low groan escapes him, and Makoto has to let up from his neck and cover his mouth with his other hand.  “Shhh, Rin,” he whispers, chuckling softly.  “We have to be quiet, okay?”

Rin nods the best he can with Makoto’s big beefy hand on his face, and for a second he’s plagued by thoughts of, Oh shit, do Makoto’s parents know he’s gay?  Did they make me stay for dinner because they think I’m his boyfriend?  Do they realize I’m still here?  If so, they definitely know what we’re up to.  Are they going to want me to stay for some awkward, morning-after, family breakfast?  Wow, nope, fuck that.

His brain goes a bit fuzzy though, and he promptly forgets all of it when he realizes Makoto is pulling on the waistband of his underwear.  

“Can I?” Makoto asks, biting his bottom lip.

Rin just nods, his mouth having gone a bit slack, and Makoto’s pulling them down until his dick springs free, and Rin tries his best to kick them the rest of the way down his legs.  Makoto slides his off as well, with a good deal more grace, and Rin has to close his eyes when he feels Makoto’s bare skin pressed between his legs.  Makoto reaches down and grips him loosely, swiping his thumb over the head a few times, and Rin’s already about to lose it.

It’s not fair; Rin figured that of the two of them, he would be the one taking charge, that he’d have Makoto falling to pieces in his hands, making soft little noises into his skin.  Not the other way around.  It’s not at all what Rin expected, and he feels a little out of control.

“Wait,” he chokes out, and Makoto’s hand stills.

“Are you okay?” Makoto asks, resting his forehead against Rin’s, sounding out of breath.  “Is it too much, are we going too fast?”

“No, no, I’m fine, I just--”  Rin doesn’t want to talk though, he wants the control back, he wants to turn Makoto into a quivering mess beneath him.  He pushes against Makoto’s chest, flipping them over on the bed so that he’s on top, and works his way between his legs.  He had kind of imagined doing some really hot move like licking and nibbling his way down Makoto’s abs and teasing until his mouth reaches his goal, but all plans pretty much vacate his brain when he actually gets a good look at what’s underneath him.  

“What?  What’s wrong?” Makoto whispers after a moment, when he notices Rin just sort of.  Staring at his dick.

“Uh.”  

“What is it?” Makoto asks again, sounding slightly panicked this time.  He follows Rin’s line of sight.  “Is it… weird or something?”

“Uh, well, yes Mako, you have a fucking tyrannosaurus cock,” Rin deadpans.  Of course.  His first experience with a dick other than his own and it has to be this absolute beast.  He should have guessed.

Makoto just laughs softly and lays his head back down on his pillow.  “Oh, yeah.  I guess it is kinda big.”

“How the hell do you hide this thing in your jammers?” Rin demands, still too apprehensive to actually touch it yet.

“Well it’s not like it’s usually this big!” Makoto says, hiding his face in his hands.  Rin can’t tell if he’s embarrassed or laughing.  “I don’t get hard-ons from swimming.”

They look at each other then in sudden silence, both obviously holding back a joke about Haru.  They try not to laugh, but fail miserably.

“Oh my god,” Rin says, shaking his head and trying to regroup.  “Okay, here, let me just.”  He wraps his fingers around the base and stroking experimentally.  Makoto abruptly stops laughing.  He’d gone slightly softer with all the distractions, but in Rin’s hand, suddenly everything is back on track.

Rin bends down, (there’s no way he’s going to fit this thing all the way in his mouth, but damn it, he can at least try) and licks the head slowly, then swirls his tongue all the way around it.

“Oh,” Makoto breathes, so quietly Rin almost doesn’t hear it.  He smiles victoriously, then does his best to cover his teeth with his lips, and takes as much of Makoto in his mouth as he can.  It really isn’t all that much, not even close to half, but he keeps using his hand on the rest, and settles into a slow but firm rhythm.  

His hand is getting wet with saliva and his jaw starts to ache way too soon and he’s not even sure that he’s actually doing this right, but he hears Makoto’s breathing speed up and feels long fingers thread gently through his hair, so he quickens his pace just a bit.

Makoto’s quiet pants get a little louder and his fingertips press a little harder.  “Rin, I--”

Rin pulls off with his mouth but keeps moving his hand, and Makoto finishes half a second later with a sigh.  When he looks at the mess on his hand, he feels pretty relieved that Makoto warned him in time.  Rin only figured out he was maybe-sort-of-partly-gay this past week; he’s not exactly ready for a shot in the mouth.

He stretches to reach the tissue box on the table, grabbing a few and doing a half-assed job cleaning off his hand and Makoto’s stomach while he’s still recovering.

It doesn’t take Makoto long though, and he sits up and sort of manhandles Rin’s legs back around his waist, kissing his way up Rin’s throat and back to his lips again.  Rin gasps when he takes hold of his cock, his large hand heavy and perfect.  His eyes are mostly closed and he’s not even really kissing Makoto, more like breathing against his lips, and it’s good, it feels so good, and his head is buzzing.

Makoto’s other hand, which had been gripping Rin’s hip, slides further back, his deft fingers feeling their way down the crack of Rin’s ass, down further until he starts to rub tiny, gentle circles on the sensitive skin of his hole.  The sensation is too much; Rin’s whole body feels like it’s made of nerve endings and he seizes up and shuts his eyes tight, coming messily all over Makoto.  

He sort of half passes out for a few minutes while Makoto cleans them up and lays Rin down on the bed like a ragdoll between himself and the bed.  His breathing finally evens out and he notices Makoto’s arm draped over him, fingers skimming across his hipbone.  

“I swear that’s not what I was after when I invited you over,” Makoto says, sounding tired and vaguely amused.

Rin huffs out a laugh.  “Didn’t I invite myself over?  And that kind of was what I was after.”

Makoto chuckles and pulls Rin closer to him.  Rin absolutely does not cuddle up to him and bury his face in the crook of Makoto’s neck.

“No but really,” he whispers into Makoto’s warm skin, “I’ve been thinking about you so much since last weekend, all the time really.  And I thought about you after I left, for Australia, when we were kids, and you wrote me all those letters?  I read them a lot and I thought about you, and I never wrote back because I just didn’t know what to say to you, and I wanted to forget everything from back home and just focus on my goals, you know.  And I was kind of miserable, but.  I thought that’s just what you do when you get older, you put aside all the kid stuff.  And I guess I just figured that whatever was between you and me, that was just kid stuff.  Does that make sense?”

He feels Makoto nod, his mouth on Rin’s hair.  

“And when I got back and I started seeing you guys all the time, I just ignored you because I had put it behind me.”

“But you and Haru--” Makoto tries to start.

“Haru…” Rin starts, trying to figure out the best way to voice his thoughts.  “Haru was my rival, Haru was the standard to which I held myself the whole time I was gone.  He was competition, and I thought that it was okay, to focus on him in that way.”  He sighs.  “I don’t know if that even makes sense, but it’s how I rationalized acting like such an asshole, okay?  And I’m just trying.  To say that I’m sorry.”

Makoto laughs softly and kisses the top of his head.  “I already know that, Rin.”

“Yeah, well maybe I just needed to say it.”

“Okay,” Makoto says sleepily.  “I forgive you then.”

Rin falls asleep still wrapped up in Makoto’s arms, feeling lighter than he has in a while.

  


“Hey Mako,” Rin whispers, lightly ruffling Makoto’s hair to try and wake him up.

“Hmmm.”  Makoto’s eyes remain closed and he buries his face further into the pillow.

“I’m going for a run, gonna head to my house to have breakfast with my mom and my sister.”

“Time’s it?” he mumbles.

“Almost six,” Rin says, then leans down to kiss him.  Makoto kisses back, but just barely.  “Go back to sleep, okay?  Maybe we can hang out later?”

“Yeah… coffee…” Makoto says, turning over to face the wall and curling up with his knees tucked into his chest like a baby.  

Rin’s not sure if he means he wants to go for coffee, or he needs coffee before he can respond properly, but he figures either way is fine.  He slings his backpack over his shoulders and sneaks silently downstairs and out the front door.  Once he’s outside in the chilly morning air, he starts stretching a bit to warm up, but freezes when he sees Haru in his running clothes, stretching outside his front door as well.  He’s staring at Rin, his expression completely unreadable.

Rin meets him halfway on the stairs, and they just sort of look at each other for a moment, neither exactly sure what to say.

“Morning,” Rin tries.

“Are you sleeping with Makoto?”

Rin’s eyebrows shoot up.  Okay, so niceties are just flying out the window then.  Typical Haru.  “What if I am?” he says, crossing his arms over his chest.

Haru gives him an appraising look, then narrows his eyes and pokes Rin in the chest hard with his index finger.  “If you hurt him, I’ll break your legs.”

Rin wants to be angry.  He wants to push back against Haru’s hand and tell him he already had his chance with Makoto and clearly blew it, so who Makoto sleeps with now is really none of his business.  He wants to tell him to fuck off.  He wants to, but he doesn’t.  The truth is, he really doesn’t feel it.  The anger and defensiveness that should be there, simply _isn’t_.  So instead, he smiles.  Not the predatory, teeth-baring smile either.  A real smile.

“Well, I guess that’s as close to getting your blessing as I’m going to get, huh?” Rin says, but doesn’t wait for Haru’s answer.  He claps him once on the shoulder, then jogs down the rest of the stairs and begins his run.  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did-U-Know: Science has proven that all twins are evil and creepy. Rin is the only one who knows this completely true fact that is based in science.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This ended up about twice as long as I'd planned, whoops. Anyway thanks for reading, that's it for this one, though I might do a short prequel, set before Rin went to Australia.

Breakfast with his mother and Gou turns out to be even more uncomfortable than it would have been if Rin had stayed at Makoto’s.  He miscalculated how long it would take him to run there versus how early they had decided to wake up on a Saturday morning, and was caught trying to sneak in the front door before he got a chance to go up to his room and mess up his bed so it would look like he came in late last night, and had to attempt to explain what he was doing running in clothes that were at least two sizes too big for him, his jeans and sweater from last night stuffed into his backpack.  He had muttered some complete bullshit about looser clothing letting more air in to circulate around him, therefore causing wind resistance to force his body to work harder, then escaped to the shower before suffering further questioning.

Now he’s sipping his miso as innocently as possible, trying to ignore his sister’s accusatory glances.  “Is that my scarf?” she asks, pursing her lips suspiciously.

Rin shrugs nonchalantly, fighting the urge to pull the scarf tighter around his neck to hide the faint pink mark that he noticed in the mirror earlier.  “It looks cuter on me.”

Gou sticks out her tongue and he flicks a piece of rice at her, earning a stern look from their mother, but they continue breakfast in silence.  Eventually his mom asks if they’ll be graced with his presence for the whole weekend or if he has plans with anyone, and he artfully dodges the question by saying he has a paper due on Monday and might meet up with one of the guys later to study.  It’s not really a lie; he does have a paper due, but it’s already finished.  He does want to meet up with Makoto, and they very possibly might spend a few minutes studying.  

He’s not sure why he’s bothering to hide the fact that he’s been hanging out with Makoto, it’s not like he hasn’t been spending more time with all his Iwatobi friends lately.  Both his mother and Gou are aware of that.  Maybe it’s the stabbing guilt he feels when he remembers Gou sobbing into his shirt last week over the guy he’s now fooling around with.  Yeah, that could possibly have something to do with it.

After breakfast he gets roped into fixing the garbage disposal and changing the batteries in the smoke detector and setting out snail traps in the garden.  His mother calls it “man work” even though Rin knows she’s perfectly capable of doing almost anything around the house; he thinks she just gets a kick out of making him do it.  Despite his grumbling, he doesn’t actually mind at all.  When he’s done, he knocks softly on Gou’s door.

“Returning my scarf yet?” she asks.

Rin saunters into her room and picks up one of the Monthly Muscle Magazine issues on her desk and starts flipping through it.  “Nah, I think I’ll keep it,” he says.  “I’m doing you a favor, it clashes terribly with your hair.”

“We have the same--” Gou starts, but gives up when she sees the amused look in Rin’s eyes.  “Oh forget it, you can have it.”

Rin tosses the magazine back where he found it.  “So, hey.  How’s everything at swim club?  After, you know.”

“After I embarrassed myself with Makoto-senpai?” she asks, her shoulders slumping.  “Not bad actually.  He’s been really nice, and no one’s brought it up, not even Nagisa.”

Rin’s not surprised; he knew Makoto would handle it gracefully.  “See?  I told you Makoto wouldn’t tell anyone.”

“Yes, Onii-chan, you were right,” she says in a somewhat patronizing tone, then sighs.  “He’s just a big, sweet, harmless puppy of a boy after all.”

“Was there ever any doubt?” Rin laughs.  “So,” he goes on, hoping to sound casual and not overly curious, “are you pretty much over that then?  Or do you still…”

She looks completely taken aback that he’s asking, and he feels pretty bad about that.  He should check up on her more, without the ulterior motive of just needing to clear his conscience.  “Do I still like him?” she asks.  “Well, I don’t know, sort of?  I mean, he really is the nicest guy, and he’s such a good captain, and his deltoids are… _amazing_ , but I actually thought a lot about what you said and maybe he’s not the best choice for me after all.”

“Oh yeah?” Rin says, perking up a little too much.

“I don’t think I even want a boyfriend at all right now,” she continues, sounding more confident, more like the Gou he’s used to.  “I have way too many club responsibilities, activities and practices to organize, and I was thinking about joining yearbook as well, and a boyfriend would just distract me, don’t you think?”

“Absolut--”

“Hana-chan is _always_ flaking out on me these days because of her stupid boyfriend and he’s not even that cute!  Way too skinny, I think.  And they’re so much upkeep.  You have to feed them and clean them and impress their mothers, and I just don’t know if it’s even worth the effort!”  She nods resolutely, more to herself than to Rin.  “I already have you and all my swim club boys to look after, and that’s like a full time job.  And as for Makoto-senpai, I suppose he is a bit of a pushover, like you said.  And I think, if I did want a boyfriend, I’d like someone a little more… forceful?”

“Well okay, yeah, gross, that’s my cue to leave,” Rin says, trying not to think of Makoto pushing him down on his bed last night.

“Wait, Onii-chan,” Gou says, grabbing onto his wrist.  “Did you come home today to check on me?  Were you worried about me?”

“Tch, yeah right,” Rin grumbles, taking his arm back.  “I was just making sure you weren’t burying yourself in snotty tissues all week, it was disgusting last time I was here.”

He barely dodges a sharp punch to his arm, and runs away to his own room.

 

After a series of texts so embarrassingly adorable Rin would pretty much be forced to murder anyone who saw them, he and Makoto decide to meet up for coffee at a place way on the far end of town.  Makoto complained about how long it would take to get there and asked why Rin insisted on going so far, and Rin had answered “ _well maybe i don’t want to run into anyone from your school because maybe i’m going to want to hold your hand or something_ ”  then added “ _idiot_ ” for good measure.  Makoto had sent back some weird blushy face emoticon and Rin felt completely ridiculous for not being able to stop smiling.

Makoto’s already at the coffee shop when Rin arrives, smiling and talking to the girl behind the pastry counter who’s flirting shamelessly and seems to be offering him free samples of whatever he wants.  Rin rolls his eyes, strolls over, and takes the hat Makoto’s wearing off of his head and puts it on his own.

“Hey!” Makoto protests, laughing when he sees Rin’s smug expression.

“It looks cuter on me,” Rin says matter-of-factly.  “Hi.”

“Hi,” Makoto says back quietly, like it’s a secret they share, smiling and looking at him in a way that makes his pulse quicken and he has to look away.  Rin absolutely hates that Makoto can do that to him too, the thing he does to girls and kittens and old ladies and teachers, that thing where he can pretty much reduce them into a puddle on the floor just with one smile.  And as if it weren’t bad enough, he catches Rin’s hand and laces their fingers together comfortably, like they’ve held hands a thousand times before.

They order drinks from the girl Makoto had been talking to, who’s wearing an expression like she just found about a hundred tiny adorable kittens and she’s about to explode into a squealing fit, and find a seat in the far corner by the window, away from the few other people in the shop.  Rin feels a little bit awkward at first, because okay, what exactly was the point of this again?  Yes, he understands this is pretty much a date, but he’s known Makoto since 6th grade, and now it’s been established that, hey, sex is a thing they can do, so why did they decide to sit and stare at each other at a coffee shop instead?  

Makoto’s telling him about how his parents are taking the twins to the zoo today and they spent the whole morning arguing over which animals to see first (which he’s describing like it’s something really adorable?), and asks how Rin’s morning was.

“We should have sex,” Rin says.

Makoto chokes on his latte.  “Um, I think the other customers might get upset if we do.”

“The barista would be into it,” he says, smiling wickedly.  

“Wow,” Makoto says, shaking his head a little.  “Quite the romantic, aren’t you?”

“Shut up, I am.”  Rin kicks his foot under the table.  “I don’t have much dating experience, am I supposed to _not_ tell you I want to have sex with you like ten minutes in?”

Makoto kicks him back.  “So this is a date?”

“Yeah, stupid, this is a date.”

“And is this how you charmed all the Australian boys?”

“Ah,” Rin says, his smile faltering a bit.  He takes a sip of his coffee.  “Yeah, not exactly.”

Makoto nods, and he has that wise and all-knowing look on his face that he always wears whenever he’s reading Haru’s mind.  “There were no Australian boys?”

“Not really, no,” Rin admits.  “Not all of us had our sexuality figured out at age 12, okay.  I still don’t even--  Look whatever, no, no boys.”  Although if pressed to really consider it, there was definitely an upperclassmen or two back then whose physique stuck out in his mind, probably for reasons other than just appreciating their form in the water.  And his coach’s assistant, the tall blond with the dimples.  And of course there was always his borderline-obsession with Haru that he probably shouldn’t look too closely at.

“Girls, then?”  Makoto’s tone is casual, but Rin can tell there’s genuine curiosity there.

He exhales dramatically and rolls his eyes.  “I mean, yeah, a few.  Nothing serious.”

Makoto just keeps looking patiently at him, and Rin adjusts uncomfortably in his seat.

“I was training, like all the time, and unlike some lovable giants I know, I’m not that great at charming teachers into giving me good grades, so I spent my free time studying.  So no, I didn’t really have a lot of opportunities to date a lot of girls, okay?  Jeez, I don’t know what you’re grilling me for,” he grumbles.

“I didn’t say anything,” Makoto says innocently.

“Well what about you?” Rin asks, trying hard not to sound accusatory.  This is really not how he had wanted the conversation to go, but he might as well at least make it fair.  “Has there been anybody besides Haru?”

Makoto winces and groans noncommittally.

“You brought it up,” Rin reminds him.

“Uh okay, I guess you’re right, um.  There were a couple of girls in middle school and then a guy right before high school started, and that was pretty much it,” he says, rushing through it, rubbing at the back of his neck and smiling awkwardly.

Rin raises his eyebrows.  “A couple of _girls_?  I thought--”

“Yeah, it was, I mean, I didn’t like _date_ them,” Makoto says, staring into his latte like it holds all the answers to the universe.  He looks up and sees Rin giving him an impatient look.  “Do you actually want to hear this?” he asks helplessly.

Rin should probably think over whether or not he wants to hear the details of the previous encounters of the guy he’s currently attempting to date, but he figures, fuck it.  “Might as well.  Get it out of the way now, you know?”

Makoto sighs and nods.  “Okay, so I don’t really like to talk about it because it’s just like, embarrassing I guess, but.  The first time I had sex--”

Rin’s eyes go wide.  Well, that answers _that_ question.

“--it was at a high school party and so everyone thought I was older, and a couple of 2nd year girls were kind of all over me, and when I said I didn’t like girls, they took it more like a challenge instead of a rejection, and they were really pushy, and I guess I wanted to seem cool or something, so… yeah.”

Rin waits for the rest of the story, but Makoto just shrugs.  “So, what.  Wait.”  Rin looks at him in utter confusion.  “They.  Wait.   _Both_ of them?”

Makoto scrubs his palm over his face.  “Definitely not my proudest moment.  I told you, there’s a reason I don’t talk about it.”

“You are telling me that you lost your virginity to two girls at once,” Rin says, dumbfounded.  

“Yes?”  Makoto’s making a face like he’s waiting for Rin to either scold him or congratulate him and either option would be equally unwelcome.  He seems relieved when Rin doesn’t say anything.  “Yes,” he repeats, in a less apologetic tone this time.  “And it was weird and kind of awful, but it’s a thing that happened, and you wanted to know, so now you know.”

Rin furrows his brows and nods.  “Fair enough.”

Makoto looks surprised that that’s all he has to say about it.  But really, there isn’t much else for Rin to say.  Makoto’s right; he wanted to know.  

“And the guy?”

“Oh, not much to tell really, he was older, we dated for maybe a month, then he uh,” Makoto laughs humorlessly, “...found out how old I was and got really freaked out.”

“That sucks,” Rin says, feeling a little pang in his chest for 15-year-old Makoto.

He smiles, but not very widely, and shrugs.  “No big deal.  He’s actually engaged now, to a girl, so I probably dodged a bullet on that one.”

Rin nods and tries not to feel jealous of some guy he’s never met.  “You were kind of a little rebel while I was gone, huh?” he says.

“I had my moments.”

Rin smiles.  “Sorry I missed it.”

Makoto just shakes his head.  “So, hey, as long as we’re talking about… stuff,” he starts hesitantly.  “I should probably tell you now that, I really don’t want to do the whole we’re-just-friends-but-we-make-out type of thing.  I did that, with Haru, and it’s really not what I want, you know?”

Rin nods, biting his lip. “So…”

“So, if you just want to be friends, even after last night, that’s fine, I’ll understand, but--”

“I don’t,” Rin says quickly.  “I don’t just want to be friends.  Is that..  I mean, I want--”

Makoto’s nodding vigorously before Rin can even finish his sentence.  “Okay, yeah, me too.  That’s.  Me too.”

Rin has to look away from the smile that’s almost splitting Makoto’s face before he starts to mirror it, so he turns toward the window and focuses on the bookstore across the street, but Makoto hooks his foot on the leg of Rin’s chair and drags it around the table closer to him.

“Hey,” Rin protests, but Makoto kisses him on the cheek and he turns about five shades of red.  “Wow, you are the worst, so fucking sappy.”  He looks over his shoulder to check if anyone’s paying attention before stealing a quick peck from Makoto’s lips.

“So,” Makoto says softly, still leaning toward Rin, “then, we’re like--”

A sudden knocking on the outside of the shop window startles them like a bucket of cold water.  “Oh shit,” Makoto says, and Rin barely has time to acknowledge that, hey wow, Makoto can curse? before he’s cursing himself at the sight of Nagisa on the other side of the window, bouncing up and down, his mouth hanging open in a mix of shock and sheer delight, and Rei, looking like he’s torn between politely waving and apologizing for Nagisa’s behavior.

“Oh, fucking brilliant,” Rin mumbles, watching Nagisa point to him, then to Makoto, then back to him, practically vibrating, pink eyes sparkling deviously.

“How did they find us out here?” Makoto groans, waving at them and smiling defeatedly.

Nagisa jumps onto Rei’s back like a king mounting his favorite horse and points grandly at the door to the coffee shop.  Rei stumbles but catches him as a reflex, and heads inside.  Rin scoots his chair back to its original position further away from Makoto just before their uninvited guests arrive at the table.

Rei lets out a huff and dumps Nagisa onto the floor.  “Nagisa, I would appreciate not being treated like a pack mule, thank you.”

Nagisa completely ignores Rei and steals a chair from the next table, dragging it over slowly and purposefully, a horrible scraping sound filling the whole shop.  He plops down in the chair and crosses his legs, looking back and forth between Rin and Makoto.

“So…” he says mischievously, and rests his chin in his hands, elbows on the table.  

Makoto cheerfully says, “Hey guys!” at the same time Rin demands “What the hell are you guys doing here?” and they both give each other disparaging looks.

“This is the cutest thing I’ve ever seen in my entire life,” Nagisa squeals, burying his face in his hands.

Rei clears his throat and adjusts his glasses importantly.  “We have a history report to research, so we were on our way to the museum when Nagisa-kun spotted you from across the street,” he informs them.

Rin shakes his head, berating himself for choosing this coffee shop.  This date was turning out to be a full-fledged disaster.  

“I have to say,” Nagisa announces, “this is not at all the way I thought it would play out.”

Rin narrows his eyes.  “What isn’t?”

“You and Mako-chan!  Together!” he says like it’s the most obvious thing in the world.

Makoto and Rin exchange a confused glance.  “Look--” Rin tries, but Nagisa talks right over him.

“I mean, you and _Haru-chan_ , yes, I could definitely see that happening,” he says matter-of-factly, then turns to Makoto.  “Or _you_ and Haru-chan.  That would make sense too.  Really, I could have sworn it would go one of those two ways.  But the two of you together?  This is definitely a surprise, don’t you think, Rei-chan?”

“Please don’t involve me in this,” Rei says, looking at the ceiling.

“Rei-chan!” Nagisa whines.  “You were just saying the other day how you hoped one of them did something about it soon because the sexual tension at joint practices with Samezuka was so thick--”

Rei grabs onto Nagisa’s head from behind and claps a hand over his mouth, turning red and sputtering about how he would never say such a thing.

Rin steals a glance at Makoto, whose cheeks are bright red and is staring at his hands on the table, looking uncomfortable.  Rin nudges his toe under the table.

“Well, contrary to popular belief, neither my nor Makoto’s life actually revolves around Haru,” he says definitively.  “And actually, you guys caught us just as we were about to leave, so.”

Nagisa pries Rei’s hand from his mouth.  “Right, right,” he says hastily, then turns to Rei and says quietly, “I told you they’d want to be alone!”

Rei just shakes his head helplessly.  

“Oh, Mako-chan, are you okay?” Nagisa asks as they all stand up and make their way slowly toward the front of the shop.  Makoto smiles half-heartedly and tells him that he’s fine, then asks about the museum that he and Rei are going to.

Rin holds Rei back by his sleeve and leans in close to him.  “Hey, Makoto doesn’t want anyone at Iwatobi to know about, you know,” he says quietly.  “So can you--”

“I’ll make sure Nagisa-kun is discreet,” Rei assures him.

Rin nods, relieved.  “Thanks Rei.”

“He means well,” Rei adds after a moment, looking at Nagisa fondly.

“Yeah, I know he does.”

When they part ways with Nagisa and Rei (Nagisa pulling them both into bone-crushing hugs, then asking Rin why he’s wearing Gou’s scarf before Rei physically drags him away), Rin takes Makoto’s hand again.  “So.”

Makoto sighs.  “That was…”

“Painful?” Rin laughs.  “Completely mortifying?”

“Yeah, pretty much.”

Rin takes a deep breath and looks up toward the sky.  “Look, that stuff about Haru--”  
Makoto turns toward him.  “Can we, just.  Not?” he asks.  “He’s my best friend and that’s never going to change, and there’s history between us, and I know you guys have always had something between you too, but.  I really like you.  Like, I _really_ like you, so can we just not, let stuff about Haru or anything else ruin it?”

Rin has to fight the urge not to just pull him down by his collar and kiss him right there on the street.  “Yeah, we can definitely do that.”  

They walk in silence for a moment, bumping shoulders occasionally, neither in any particular hurry.  “So this was pretty much the worst first date ever, huh?” Rin says lightheartedly.

“I don’t know,” Makoto shrugs.  “I think it’s still salvageable.”

“Oh yeah, how’s that?”

“There’s no one home at my house,” he says, side-eyeing Rin and smirking.  “We can do… pretty much anything.”

“Okay,” Rin says, trying not to sound too excited.

“Bus or train?”

“Train’s faster.”

  
  


When they get back to Makoto’s empty house, Rin insists on a quick shower, which is really all he meant, except that Makoto steps in after him when he’s barely had a chance to soap up, covering the back of his neck with languid kisses.  His eyes slip closed and he tilts his head to the side, letting Makoto wrap around him from behind, strong arms holding his chest, lips working their way up to his jaw.  He turns his head to meet Makoto’s mouth, sighing a little into the kiss he’s been craving all day.  Makoto turns him around so they’re face to face, flush against each other, and pulls Rin’s bottom lip gently with his teeth.

Rin’s trying desperately to hold himself back and not just grind against Makoto, but apparently Makoto’s feeling just as impatient as he is, and he feels himself being pushed back against the cold tile, Makoto’s mouth fixed to his.

“You’re all slippery,” Makoto whispers, sliding his hard cock against Rin’s, making his breath catch in his throat.

“Yeah well I didn’t exactly get a chance to rinse the soap off before you hijacked my shower,” Rin growls.  He pushes his hips against Makoto’s, who smiles.  

“I could leave you alone, if you want,” he offers, making no move to leave.

Rin nips at his neck, mindful of his teeth.  “No, fuck you.”

Makoto breathes a quiet laugh.  He grabs the bar of soap Rin had been using earlier and makes a rich lather on his hands before putting it back on the shelf, and proceeds to wash Rin, which is completely unnecessary but actually feels really nice, Makoto’s large hands moving slowly over his torso.  Thumbs brush down over his nipples, making Rin shiver a little, but they don’t linger.  He works his way down until he’s got two handfuls of Rin’s ass, and as much as Rin likes this take-charge side of Makoto, he’s still not used to it.

He starts to get that out-of-control feeling in his chest again but instead of fighting it, he decides to just let Makoto be in charge.  He’s the one with all the experience after all.  So when his hand slides down the cleft of Rin’s ass with his long fingers and breaks off a slow kiss to whisper, “Turn around,” Rin does it.

He isn’t sure what to do with his hands, so he just sort of braces himself against the shower wall while Makoto mouths at the shell of his ear, one hand holding his chest and the other working its way between them to tease the outside of his hole with slick fingers.  Rin’s breathing speeds up and he tries to remember a time when he ever felt this vulnerable.  

“Relax,” Makoto breathes into his ear, and Rin nods.

He can feel the daunting presence that is Makoto’s cock, hot and wet and heavy against him, and tries not to let it completely terrify him.  He nods again when Makoto asks him if he’s okay, though his knees are practically turning to jelly.  Makoto’s other hand slides down to stroke Rin’s length and he lets out a soft moan.  He hates that he’s so close to the edge already when Makoto seems so in control, but it’s so hard to care about anything right now, Makoto’s finger pushing gently inside him and whispering in his ear to “relax, just relax.”

He thinks he might be pissed off about that later; being treated like a fragile little flower by a guy he has literally seen rescue a kitten from a tree, but at the moment he’s oddly grateful, because he does relax a little and lean back into Makoto, ignoring the water beating steadily onto his skin and focusing on Makoto’s hands, his voice, and it feels even better.

“You’re close, huh?” he says, moving his finger a little deeper and pumping Rin’s cock a little faster.  

Rin tries to respond but only a groan comes out.  Makoto pushes deeper still and Rin wants to tell him to slow down, he’s so close already, he doesn’t want it to be over, but instead his orgasm overtakes him and he comes hard, spurting onto the wall and Makoto’s hand.  Makoto strokes him through it, letting go and withdrawing his finger gently once Rin’s breathing finally starts to even out.  He keeps his arms around Rin though, holding him like he’s afraid Rin might collapse if he lets go.

“You’re all shaky,” he says softly.  “Are you okay?”

Rin turns around and rests his forehead on Makoto’s shoulder, trying to calm his body down.  “Yeah.  The water’s just kinda cold.”

They rinse off the mess and the suds and Makoto grabs them both towels and they dry off quickly before he beckons Rin to follow him to his bedroom.  He closes the door behind them and Rin gathers himself and flashes a smile fueled by bravado and nerves, trying not to marvel too much at how Makoto basically looks like Superman without his clothes on.

They make their way to the bed, both lying on their sides, their legs tangling together, hands roaming on freshly clean skin, and Rin’s reminded of those afternoons when they were younger and thinks about how crazy it is that he’s ended up here after all these years with the same too-sweet, too-tall kid.  

“Hey,” he says, looking Makoto in the eyes.  “I’ve never done this.”

Makoto smiles and tucks Rin’s hair back away from his eyes.  “Yeah, I know.”

Rin swallows.  “Yeah, but like, any of it.  I’ve kissed exactly two girls and touched exactly one boob.  Over the bra.  For like, a second.  That’s my whole history, that’s it.  Besides you.”

Makoto doesn’t really look surprised at all, probably because he’s a creepy mind-reader.  “So do you still--”

“Yeah, I do, I really want to with you, I just.  Thought I should be honest,” he says, feeling kind of stupid now that he’s said it.  “Or whatever.”

“And you don’t think we’re moving too fast?” Makoto asks, sounding a little guilty.

Rin gives him an impatient look.  “Our first kiss was five years ago.”

“That’s a good point,” Makoto laughs and kisses him and Rin melts a little for the hundredth time today.  “If you want me to stop, just tell me, okay?” he says, and rolls them over so he’s on top, between Rin’s legs.  

Rin’s half hard again already, despite his nerves, while Makoto’s dragging his lips down Rin’s chest, nipping gently with his teeth, lower and lower until he feels him sucking a bruise onto his inner thigh.  He throws an arm over his face when Makoto’s lips finds his cock, teasing and licking slowly from base to tip, then taking the whole thing into his mouth at once, making Rin’s sloppy half-blowjob from last night seem even more like amatuer hour.

He tries to keep his breathing under control and the embarrassing noises to a minimum, but he can’t hold back a surprised gasp when Makoto moves lower and tongues behind his balls, pushing his thighs up and spreading them out wide.  He almost forces his legs back together as a reflex, but Makoto’s arms are incredibly strong and hold him in place.  

Makoto licks slowly over his hole with firm pressure and a quiet string of curses (including many iterations of “Mako” and “what the fuck”) pours out of Rin’s mouth.  His fingers curl into fists in the sheets and Makoto’s tongue is so wet and hot pushing inside him, and in some vague part of his mind he congratulates himself for remembering to be thorough when shaving this morning.

Eventually Makoto’s finger joins his tongue, and Rin gives up all hope of staying cool and quiet.  It’s not like he hasn’t stuck a finger up there when he’s jerking off a time or two, or fifty, but this is most definitely not the same experience.

When Rin can’t even form words anymore, Makoto produces a half-empty bottle of lube from under the mattress, and sits up on his knees between Rin’s still-spread legs.  Rin peeks out from beneath his arm and sees Makoto looking down at him like he’s goddamn Christmas dinner, coating his fingers in what looks like an excessive amount of lube.  Rin looks up at the ceiling and bites his lip waiting to feel those fingers inside him, but instead Makoto’s leaning forward and nudging his arm away from his face, kissing him softly.  

“Just relax, okay?” he says, like it’s his fucking catchphrase.  

“Shut the fuck up, Mako,” Rin says, but without any real malice in his voice.

Makoto chuckles and whispers “sorry” and reaches between them, and expertly finds his way back to Rin’s entrance with slicked up fingers, pushing two in at once.

On finger is good, a tongue is pretty mind-blowing, two fingers… hurts a little.  Makoto’s being gentle and moving slowly and making sure he’s okay every other second, but it takes what feels like a really long time for him to adjust and to actually start feeling good, and just when it does, Makoto starts to add a third finger.  Rin’s really glad that they didn’t attempt this last night when Makoto’s family was sleeping, because he’s pretty sure his moans make him sound like a dying animal; pained and not sexy at all.

Makoto asks if he wants to stop and Rin wants to snap at him “No, for fuck’s sake!” but instead he just whispers something about going slow, he’s okay, just go slow, and he hates how breathless he sounds.  Makoto does, of course, he has the patience of an actual fucking saint, but when the pain starts to fade, Rin gets worried again.

“Mako,” he says, and those big green puppy-dog eyes look down at him.  “Your monster-cock is never gonna fit.”  He says it with the hint of a smile, like it’s a joke, but he’s honestly kind of terrified.

“Do you still want to do this?” he asks, and Rin knows that if he said no, that Makoto would stop and tell him that’s okay and probably make him hot chocolate and cuddle him for the rest of the day.

“Yeah.”

“Do you trust me?”

Rin rolls his eyes, because there probably isn’t a more trustworthy person on the planet than Makoto Tachibana.  “Yeah,” he says.

“Okay,” Makoto says, and slowly draws back his fingers, making Rin wince, and leans over him to get to the drawer in the bedside table where he apparently keeps his stash of size XL condoms.  

And while he’s rolling it on and adding more lube, it suddenly strikes Rin how glad he is that he never got around to doing this with anyone else.  He tries to imagine someone else being this patient and selfless about the whole thing and of course he can’t.  He thinks Haru probably would have ripped his clothes off and gotten down to business right away, without asking a hundred times, or at all, if Rin’s okay.  Of course, if it were Haru, Rin wouldn’t just be lying on his back either; he’d be on top, holding Haru’s wrists down trying to break through that stoic exterior.  

Not that he’s ever imagined sex with Haru.

Makoto brings him back to reality, giving his cock a few tugs before lining up and starting to push in.  It hurts, but not as much as he’d thought.  Still though, he kind of wishes they were doing it from behind, because this way Makoto can see every time he flinches, and how he has to shut his eyes tight when he feels them start to well up, and whispers soft encouragements and praises that Rin can’t really make sense of.  It’s just so intimate and Rin wonders if maybe they did rush into this.

He lets that thought go though, and when Makoto starts to move, Rin tries to move with him.  It feels kind of awful for a while and he can tell that Makoto’s not even going all the way in, and he wants so badly to be better at this, able to take the whole thing and make Makoto feel good, and he’s sort of pissed that he can’t.  Tears sting his eyes and Makoto brushes them away when they spill out the corners, and whispers that he’s perfect, he feels amazing.

The pain and feeling of foreignness finally start to subside, and Rin thrusts slightly upward, earning a little gasp from Makoto, and it actually does start to feel good.  His cheeks burn as he tells Makoto he can go deeper, it’s okay, and Makoto does, slowly.  His fingers dig into Makoto’s back when they both pick up the pace, their breaths coming in pants.

“Mako,” Rin chokes out, “please, can you--”

Makoto’s rhythm doesn’t falter as he reaches between them to start stroking Rin’s cock, and Rin lets out a cry.  He forgets to be embarrassed as Makoto’s hips are pushing flush against him and bringing him so close to the edge.  He looks up for a moment to catch Makoto biting his lip, his brows furrowed in concentration, like it’s taking all his willpower not to just let go, and it’s so gratifying to see him like that.  Rin’s back arches and and he curses loudly and comes all over his stomach.  Makoto finishes soon after, looking like he just won a marathon, triumphant that he held out for so long, and collapses on top of Rin, breathing heavily.

When he rolls off of him, he seems to realize that he made a disgusting mess of bodily fluids between them, and laughs, grabbing one of their discarded towels from the floor.  He wipes them down and asks if Rin’s okay, to which Rin just grunts, eyes closed, smiling a little.

He lies back down next to Rin and pulls him close, and he feels Makoto’s breath on top of his head.  “That was… intense,” he says softly, and Rin nods, feeling victorious.  He knows he wasn’t Makoto’s first, but he’ll settle for “intense.”  For now.  Soon he plans to graduate to “the best ever” and eventually ascend to “godlike.”  All in good time.

Neither realizes that they’ve started to doze off until they hear the front door opening, and Rin snaps his head toward Makoto, wide-eyed and very much awake.

They can hear the kids laughing, or perhaps arguing, it’s hard to tell, and the quieter murmur of Makoto’s parents shuffling around downstairs, as Makoto rushes to get pants on and retrieve Rin’s clothes from the bathroom floor before his parents can catch him.  

He makes it back without being seen, but closes his bedroom door a little too loudly and his mother calls his name, asking if he’s home.

“Uh, nope!” Makoto calls back.  “Not here!”  He turns the lock on his door as silently as possible.

They hear his parents laugh and his father call, “So I suppose Matsuoka’s not here either?”

Rin’s eyes widen and Makoto covers his mouth in surprise.  “What the fuck?  How did they know?” Rin whispers, pulling his pants on gingerly.  A whole family of mind-readers, what has he gotten himself into.  

Makoto just shrugs helplessly.  “Nope, nobody here!” he shouts.

“Well tell _nobody_ that he’s welcome to stay for dinner again if he’d like,” they hear, quickly followed by the television switching on and the twins arguing over what to watch.

“Oh my god,” Rin groans, burying his face into Makoto’s pillow.  “I am not going down there for dinner, I hope you know that.”

Makoto laughs and climbs back onto the bed with Rin.  “You don’t want to eat my mother’s cooking?” he asks, feigning innocence.

“Not after spending the afternoon getting plowed by her son’s enormous dick, no, not particularly,” Rin says, pushing Makoto’s shoulder with his.

Makoto laughs and pushes back and they end up sort of faux-wrestling until Rin grimaces in pain (he definitely does not want to walk home tonight) and Makoto apologizes and kisses his neck and shoulders and forces cuddles on him.

“God, I can’t believe everyone just knows about us already, it’s barely been a day,” Rin says after a while, although he honestly doesn’t mind much.  He wants to wait a while longer to admit to Gou that he accidentally stole her crush, but otherwise, he’s doesn’t actually care about hiding it.

“Except Haru,” Makoto adds.

Rin clears his throat.  “Uh, yeah, actually, he knows too.”

Makoto turns to face him, eyebrows raised.  

“He sort of caught me leaving your house this morning.”

“What did he say?” Makoto asks, and Rin wishes he didn’t sound so panicked.  So what if Haru knows?  Why does Makoto care so much?

He knows the answer, of course, he knew it going into this whole thing, that Haru means the world to Makoto, and he always will.  And if Rin cares about Makoto at all, he needs to just let their friendship be and not let his competitive streak run wild.  Besides, he knows if it weren’t for Makoto, Haru would probably be malnourished on a diet of nothing but mackerel and would never show up for school, and in fact might even be in jail right now for repeated public nudity.  And without Haru, Makoto would no doubt end up focusing all his mothering tendencies on Rin, and Rin already has a mother and a sister who dote on him, he doesn’t need that from a boyfriend.

So maybe it’s better this way, even if it’ll take some practice to keep his jealousy under control.  He can work on it.

“He told me he’d break my legs if I hurt you.”

The worry leaves Makoto’s face and is replaced by a warm and fond little smile, the one that Rin knows is reserved for Haru, and he’s already pushing the boundaries of the whole controlling-his-jealousy thing.

“You know,” Rin says, trying to shake it off, “it’s not exactly fair.  Who’s going to break your legs if you hurt my poor sensitive little heart?”

Makoto looks at him like it should be obvious, which it really should have been to Rin, and they both say at the same time, “Gou.”

 

~~~

 

Two weeks later, after a joint swim club practice at the Samezuka pool, Gou catches them while trying to locate her team’s captain in the otherwise-empty changing room, Rin’s back shoved up against a row of lockers, his hand down the front of Makoto’s jammers.  

After they’re dressed and have received a proper scolding for sullying the pristine locker room (Makoto’s face is as red as a tomato when Gou mentions their “exhibitionism”), she actually does threaten Makoto with bodily harm if he does anything to hurt her brother.  However, the huge grin is wiped off Rin’s face when she turns to point a somehow intimidating finger at him and threatens to do worse to him if he hurts her captain and ruins anything for her team, then storms off in a huff.

Later, she finds him at the dorm and says congratulations.  He doesn’t even complain when she hugs him.


End file.
